The described embodiments relate generally to improving the performance of computer systems providing content item synchronization, and particularly to improving the synchronization of content items between a client device and a content management system where storage allocation for synchronized content items is constrained.
Content management systems enable users to share content items from one client to another client. The clients are computing devices that provide content items to a content management system for storage and synchronization with other clients. The other clients may be operated by another user or may be devices registered or managed by the same user. A user designates which content items or directories containing content items are available to be shared with other users, and thus synchronized to the client devices of such users. Generally, a content management system synchronizes a given content item with all of the client devices that have been designated to share the content item. As a result, each of these client devices may store a very large amount of shared content items. In some cases, the amount of storage taken up on a client device by the shared content items substantially reduces the amount of storage available on the client device for other items, such as unsynchronized content items and applications.
The figures depict various embodiments for purposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the following discussion that alternative embodiments of the structures and methods illustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principles of the invention described herein.